Hello. I feel silly asking this but I want to ask about tree climbing.

It's a great way for kids to demonstrate skill, derring-do, bravery to their friends, it's exercise, expressing how to move their bodies...

And I'm sure it's not in any RMP I've seen. It's never been an issue until recently. I have four tree climbers out of the blue and once one goes up, the others follow, as high as they can. I can't always nip it in the bud; they're fast and sometimes I don't know they're up until I ask where is So and so and it's "In the tree!"

Am I being overprotective in not wanting Scouts in trees? Because as much as they think they are indestructible and as much as logically I know that 95% of the time, they will not fall out of the tree because they are just that limber, I just dread for when that one time a Scout misjudges and falls, breaks a limb and then we're all in trouble.

I would prefer that tree climbing be one of those things in the category of "That's awesome, that's cool, please not on a Scouting event." (that would include rough horseplay, trash talking each other, etc.)

It may sound glib, but one option you could use is to point out that they're going against their outdoor adventure skills badge for vertical skills, namely point 1.1: "I know the safety rules for climbing on rocks, trees, fences and man-made structures." The safety rules include getting permission from an adult before climbing any trees.

You Scouts are having a lot of fun climbing that tree. Who can tell me three things to consider when climbing a tree?
1) Be safe for the tree. How many people should climb at once and to what height? After that height, the branches become too weak to hold you and might break.
2) Be safe for the Scout. How high should you climb and how close together should you be? Climbing under someone can be dangerous and you want to ensure you can climb to somewhere that you can climb down from.
3) Paperwork. If you fall, there will be paperwork. How high can you climb safely to avoid the dreaded paperwork?

Scouter XXXXX and I will be back in 2 minutes. Consider those questions and we can chat about this. I want you to have fun climbing the tree, but let's do it safely so I don't have to do paperwork.

Ha! No longer with Beavers, I have graduated to Troop. There's more push back and "So?" and "Fine, I'll do the paperwork!" or anything to postpone getting out of the tree esp. if the Scout is having a bad night (which happened last Spring; that particular Scout was having a very particularly bad night: refused to get out of three, made another Scout cry, dropped an F-bomb and we had to call his parents. He's since much more settled as his parents are determined to raise good kids.)

Many will get down after the first warning, the rest after I lay it on thick about safety and the remainder after two or three Scouters pile on. At least, it's something all the Scouters are on the same page for.